A cigarette… to measure

In rural areas of Greece the cigarette was sometimes used as a unit of distance: it would describe the distance someone could travel (on foot or by riding a donkey) in the time needed to smoke a cigarette. The "unit" first appeared around 1900, when cigarettes became popular in Greece, and was used until the 1960s, when automobiles began to displace donkeys and mules. Today, only some aged people in extremely remote villages might still use it.